Gafx 2017 final report

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Bengaluru GAFX Conference is India’s most prominent & largest annual event for Games,
Animation & Visual Effects industry hosted by Government of Karnataka and organized
by ABAI.
This event has been known as ABAI Fest & KAVGC Summit and this year it has been
rechristened as Bengaluru GAFX Conference.
The event is a congregation of animation, VFX & games studios, production houses,
industry veterans, professionals, students, academia and technology partners. The event
strives to attract top subject matter experts, studios, production houses, game
developers and the best content & projects from all over the world to provide exposure
and know -how to the professionals, artists and students. The event offers one of its kind
platforms for professionals, artists and students to showcase their talent and get
recognized on India’s largest platform and connect with top employers from all over the
world. The endeavour is to enrich, energize, inspire and create a vibrant ecosystem.

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ORIGINS
ABAI - is a non-profit organization committed to develop the Animation, VFX and Gaming
industry in India. ABAI a connector of the ecosystem – industry, academia, government &
the community – and a catalyst for development.
While ABAI’s initiatives are pan – India, they work very closely with the Government of
Karnataka state in terms of both recommending as well executing policy for the Animation,
VFX and Gaming Industry.
ABAI Fest & KAVGC Summit 2017
ABAI Fest & Summit is ABAI’s flagship annual event organized with support from GoK
(Government of Karnataka). The objective of this event is to get the animation, VFX, gaming
and computer graphics community together, enrich, energize and inspire the community.
With the unprecedented success of ABAI Fest & Summit 2016 the Government of Karnataka
has taken over the event & rechristened as Bengaluru GAFX Conference. The idea being to
brand Bengaluru as the AVGC capital of the country and also have the name of the
conference represent the sector as well, where G denotes Games, A – Animation, & FX –
Effects.

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Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 Comprised of;
 Master Classes & Workshops by global subject matter experts.
 Talks & Presentations by leading Hollywood studios & award winning production
houses.
 Live artistic competition and hackathon
 Screening of award winning films & best CG content from all over the world
 VR track including showcase and experience zone
 Job & Career fair
 Awards & gala attractions
When and Where?
Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 was marked to happen on May 12th
, 13th
& 14th
2017.
Keeping the scope & scale of the event in mind and with multiple parallel sessions planned,
The Lalit Ashok, Bangalore was the best option available, as it offered an array of elegant
and sophisticated venues for conferences, meetings, and upscale social events. It has
39,000 square feet of conference and banquet space ranging from The Grand Ballroom to
Kalinga I & II, Siddhartha etc. which perfectly suited our requirement to host the event.

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 Speaker line up and topics curated comparable with the best global conferences – FMX,
View Conference, SIGGRAPH Asia etc.
 Additional day focused on workshops and master classes
 Attendance ~ 4500 people per day totalling to foot falls of over 13,500 over 3 days
 Attendees from all over the country including from cities like Delhi, Noida, Kolkata,
Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kerala, Nagpur including from Singapore
 All halls have run full house
 Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 witnessed top 32 subject matter experts from the best in
the industry across the globe delivering 29 talks & presentation, 11 workshops & 2 panel
discussions compared to ABAI Fest 2016 with 21 speakers delivering 23 Presentation.
 The entire conference management & organization was at par with any global conference.
All multiple parallel sessions –
 Scheduled in the most efficient manner to ensure that parallel sessions don’t
cannibalize each other
 Ran like clockwork without slightest delays.
 500 participants in the competitions, pre-screening & short listing required to limit
participation due to space constraints in comparison to ~ 350 last year.
 New competition categories was introduced like; Story Writing, 3D Game art
 Participation by top studios and studio leaders from all over the country
 Kannada industry panel for the very 1st
time
 GAFX 2017 app with Q&A for all sessions conducted via app.
 This year GAFX 2017 encountered 38 booths at exhibitor’s area compared to previous year
with 24 booths at ABAI Fest & Summit 2016
 Booths sold out 2 weeks prior to the event
 Additional inquiries from ~ 15 additional parties
BENGALURU GAFX CONFERENCE 2017 HIGHLIGHTS

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The conference for the 1st
time introduced master classes and hands on workshops by
subject matter experts in areas that will directly benefit the artistic and technical
professionals and students. These sessions offered rich learning and insights to the entire
spectrum of the community ranging from studio creative leaders, department heads, team
leads, artists, technical folk as well as students. The topics also ranged from story,
production design, cinematography, character animation, visual effects, scripting, math in
entertainment to Unity (beginner to advanced level workshops).
1. Masterclass on Physics on Animation – Alejandro Garcia, Professor – San Jose State
University – An understanding of physics is essential for creating believable animated
motion.
2. Workshop on Storytelling with Light – Sharon Calahan, Director of Photography, The
Good Dinosaur – Pixar Animation Studios – A look at how to create beautiful and
memorable images to enhance story telling.
3. Masterclass on Organic Approach to Visual Effects – Joseph Gilland, Veteran Disney
Supervisor of Visual Effects, Author of Elemental Magic – The Art of Special Effects
Animation. – A fresh perspective to understand the underlying energy behind
elemental special effects such as fire, water, smoke, explosions and magic.
4. Masterclass on Story – Craig Caldwell, Professor Utah University – This session
focused on how story development stimulates emotions in the audience.
5. Masterclass on 3D Character Animation – Anand Baid, Founder Native Puppets,
Former Animator Dreamworks Animation, India. – This session shared an in-depth
knowledge on importance of animation fundamentals, understanding and
application of body mechanics and many more.
6. Math in Entertainment – Dr. Ashraf Golam, Graphic Practitioner, Game Developer
and Academic Consultant. – The 6 hours’ workshop gave a solid foundation for
solving computational problems faced during CG asset creation or short production.

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These sessions offered a good blend of Hollywood, Bollywood and regional film’s artists and
technical directors, delivering talks on behind the scenes, making of the super hit films, post
production, etc. catering to future professional artists to studio creative heads and industry
leaders.
 Making it Small: Physics of Scale of Dreamworks Animation ‘Trolls’ - Alejandro
Garcia – Professor, San Jose State University.
 Designing and Executing ‘Doctor Strange’ – Faraz Hameed – Previs: Postvis
Supervisor , The Third Floor.
 The Visual Design of ‘The Good Dinosaur’ - Sharon Calahan, Director of
Photography, The Good Dinosaur, Pixar Animation Studios.
 The Art of Fluidity - Joseph Gilland, Veteran Disney Supervisor of Visual Effects,
Author of Elemental Magic – The Art of Special Effects Animation.
 Polygon Pictures: 34 Years of Digital Animation – Shuzo John Shiota – CEO, Polygon
Pictures.
 Evolution of an Animation Film Maker – Vaibhav Kumaresh - Director, Vaibhav
Studios, Mumbai.
 Finding Hank – John Halstead – Supervising Technical Director, Pixar Animation
Studios.
 Fight with Tigers – ‘Pulimurugan’ – Murali Manohar – VFX Supervisor and Chief
Technical Director, Firefly Creative Studio, Hyderabad.
 Walt Disney Animation Studios: Moana (1. Creating Oceans, Shorelines & Reefs 2.
Design & Collaboration of Effects ) – Dale Mayeda - Head of Effects, Walt Disney
Animation Studios
 Significance of Technology (VFX) in Storytelling – Prasad Suttar, Co-Founder VFX
Supervisor – NY VFXWALA
 Making of Baahubali 2 - The Conclusion – Pete Draper, Co-Founder VFX Supervisor –
Makuta VFX
 Mathematics for TDs & Animators – Mark Elendt, Senior Mathematician, SideFX &
Siggraph Computer Animation Festival Committee.
 State of Art: How to Hit a Moving Target – Hugh Riley, Art Manager-Ubisoft

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 Walt Disney Animation Studios: Moana – Demystifying Characters – Avneet Kaur,
Character Technical Director at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
 The Fate of the Furious: VFX Behind The Scenes – Micheal Grobe, VFX Supervisor
Double Negative.
 Unity for Films – Mathieu Muller, Field Engineer, Unity Technologies.
 Oscar Quality VFX: Technology Behind ‘The Jungle Book’ – Markus Ristich, Software
Training Guru, MPC Vancouver & Phani Madhav, Head of Software, MPC India.
 A look at 5 Films with Production Designer and A Wildly Unscientific & Incomplete
Introduction to Visual Design – David James, Production Designer.
 Making of ‘Astrix: The Mansions of God’ – Nicolas Trout, Executive Producer and
Co-Head of Animation Studio, Mikros Image.
 Method of Madness: How Shotgun powers 88 Pictures Success Stories – Rakesh
Patil, Head of Production, 88 Pictures & Saswat Kumar Sahoo, Head of Pipeline Dept.
88 Pictures.
 Bringing Characters to Life – Parth Shah, Technical Director,Centroid Motion
Captures
 Developing Apps for Samsung GearVR – Nachiketa Da, Technical Lead/Graphics &
VR and Amit Yadav Software Engineer/Graphics & VR
 Rendering for Success: How Arnold Powers Assemblage Entertainment – Arjun
Madhavan, Head – Strategy and New Business Development.
 Panel Discussion – Karnataka Start-up’s Success Stories
 Panel Discussion – Evolution of Sandalwood – Use of Technologies

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We had two interesting panel discussion sessions at GAFX 2017. Among the two was
‘Karnataka GAFX success stories’ where successful stories of animation and VFX studios
based in Karnataka was highlighted.
The panelists included:
 Ganesh Papanna – Director, Thought Cloud Studio
 Naveen Kumar M – CEO, MRT Studios.
 Vivek Bolar – Director, AUM Animation Studios.
 Vishnu Saran – Head of Marketing, Appu Series.
 Vishal T – CEO, Videogyan.
Moderating this panel was Mr. Biren Ghose - Country Head, Technicolor & President, ABAI.
The session was focused on the success stories of these startups. Challenges, opportunities
and way forward.
During the discussion Mr. Papanna said “Start-ups is all about chasing dreams.” He spoke
about the quality of the content had to be produced with the correct mix of skill, finance
and passionate management and he also highlighted about their project ‘Indrajeet’ which is
a short-animated film of 29 minutes which has won many accolades and how it took three
years to complete.
Mr. Naveen Kumar stated about the biggest hurdles faced in Kannada Film Industry is the
budget of the film as Kannada Film Industry has shoe-string budget in which VFX is even
included. He mentioned as the industry is progressing therefore they are becoming more
open to the digital arena.
Videogyan, CEO, Mr. Vishal T mentioned about the potential of social media platform and
chose kids as their user base. He also emphasized on how analytics helped them understand
their user base and generate business.
It was time to end the session. Mr. Ghose went on to share a piece of advice for the aspiring
entrepreneurs. He said, “Because of the change in platforms in media world, change is
imminent. Even if you are working with an old company, you need to think as start-ups all
the time as you need to do many things. There is an opportunity for Bengaluru to have hub
for online market for digital marketing globally as we have a dynamic IT minister now!”
KARNATAKA START UP’S SUCCESS STORIES

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There were two panel discussion taking place at GAFX 2017. One of which was “Evolution of
Sandalwood – Use of Technology”.
The objective of this discussion was
 To trace the growth in the use of technology in Sandalwood over the years and
discuss challenges faced.
 Showcase the best recent work done in the industry and explore future tech trends.
 Discuss about retaining work within the state and facilities required.
The panel list included
 S.Krishna – Film Director
 Rakshith Shetty - Actor/Director
 Udayravi Hegde - Managing Partner of Unifimedia
 Santosh Radhakrishnan – VFX compositor & Editor
Moderating this panel was Srinivas B.S., CEO – Vedatma & Director – Purple Arrow Films.
This panel discussion focused on the journey of these artists and how digital technology
played a vital role during their journey.
Udayravi stated that “Back then, visual effects formed around only one or two percent of a
movie. These days, some movie have as much as 30 percent done using visual effects.” He
also said “Now there are hardly any movies that do not use animation & VFX, it has become
an integral part film making.”
Krishna.S spoke about his journey as a Director and how technology progressed from optical
to digital and also he was overwhelmed to admit the growth of digital labs and VFX studios
in Bengaluru producing quality outcome.
Whereas one of the other panelists Rakshith Shetty said how in his recent movie “Kirik
Party” he did use VFX where it was desperately needed and the outcome was that nobody
could tell the difference. He also stated that “We have come a long way and I believe it’s
time we have to take a leap further.”
Santosh Radhakrishnan added that the new generation Directors and Producers have
broken the myth of the use of low quality VFX in the regional films. The recent Kannada
movies depicts the use of high quality VFX and animation which shows the growth and an
evolution in the Kannada Film Industry.
EVOLUTION OF SANDALWOOD – USE OF TECHNOLOGY

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The ‘Art-Animation-Tech Competition’ is India’s one of its kind competition challenge where
contestants went through a creative/technical and physical endurance test for up to
30 hours to claim the coveted ‘Bengaluru GAFX Champions’ Title. This was supported by
some of the top AVGC studios in India along with support from the Government of
Karnataka, ABAI and leading Industry Partners. This challenge had two separate categories –
professional and students and this year the scale of the competition was 3-4 times of the
previous year with new competition categories being introduced, Mentors from industry
leaders during the course of competition and participants from all over India from various
studios and fine art colleges.
The competition had various categories in the field of Art, Animation and Technology. All
contestants assembled under one roof on the 2nd
and 3rd
day of the event and competed to
create the most compelling art, animation and piece of technology in a controlled setting.
Basic supplies were provided, apart from a provision to get those 40 winks rest. The theme
was revealed prior to the start of the challenge. The winners took home exciting prizes
along with on spot job & internship offers by the top studios.
The focus was beyond winning on – participating, rubbing shoulders with industry
professionals and showcasing a strong effort thus getting exposed to and connecting with
the AVGC ecosystem.
Competition Categories:
 Character Animation
 Clay Sculpting
 Digital Painting
 3D Modelling
 3D Game Art
 Story Writing
 Traditional Painting
 Hackathon

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Challenge / task of each competition
 Character Animation: (30 Hrs)
Students: Body mechanics
Professional: Pantomime acting shots
 Clay sculpting: (8 Hrs)
Student: Animal head
Professional: Animal in motion
 Digital Painting: (8 Hrs)
Student: Futuristic Karnataka
Professional: Futuristic Karnataka
 3D Modelling: (10 Hrs)
Student: Conceptual Weapon modelling (reference was given)
Professional: Conceptual Character modelling (reference was given)
 3D Game art: (24 Hrs)
Student: Conceptual Weapon modelling (reference was given)
Professional: Conceptual Spacecraft modelling (reference was given)
 Story Writing: (24 Hrs)
Theme was a simple story line given to both Students & Professional.
Story line:
"A Lion is chasing a rabbit in a forest, when it's about to pounce on it, something flying
down from the sky hits the ground and a very big explosion takes place. This is a few
hundred yards from the lion and rabbit, because of the explosion both aback and they
keep staring at it with shock forgetting what they were doing before the explosion."
 Traditional Painting: (8 Hrs)
Student: Historical Karnataka
Professional: Historical Karnataka
 Hackathon: (22 Hrs)
This year we had two division/topics for hackathon
Procedural Generation: Generating a city
Simulation X: Stimulate the traffic junction at its optimum time.

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Eric Egerup Art Director, Dhruva Interactive
Hugh Riley Art Manager, Ubisoft India
Philippe Gluckman
Creative Director – MIKROS Animation,
India
Prashant Nair HoD Assets – MPC Films
Sean Mullen Creative Director – Technicolor, India
Veerendra Patil Chief Creative Officer – Xentrix Studios
Vaibhav Kumaresh Director, Vaibhav Studios, Mumbai
Craig Caldwell Professor – Utah University
Mark Elendt
Senior Mathematician, SideFX & SIGGRAPH
Computer Animation Festival Committee
Digital Painting
Anil Kumar SR Dreamworks Animation India Senior Matte Painter
Manoj Menon Technicolor Art Director
Somnath Patra Zynga Principal Concept Artist
Krishna Raju Dreamworks Animation India Lead Lighter
Traditional Painting
Balaji V Dreamworks Animation India Senior Lighting Artist
Nijesh Sidharthan Dreamworks Animation India Surfacing Artist
Thangarasu Dreamworks Animation India Surfacing Artist
MENTORS
JURY LIST

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Vichar BN Technicolor Asset Supervisor
Character Animation
Rohit Kolhe Zynga
Rishab Technicolor
Anand Baid Native Puppets
Rubul Das Xentrix
Deepak Ganguly
Ritwik Nag Dhruva
Hensel Sebastia Dhruva
3D Game Art
Anand Halbhavi Zynga
Somnath Patra Zynga - Principal Concept artist
Subhashis B Technicolor
Appalraju N Technicolor
Amit SA Technicolor
Ram Prasad Mikros Animation India - Lighting TD
3D Modeling
Bhanu Technicolor
Manoj Venkat Raman Dhruva
Aneesh A Dhruva
Avijit B Technicolor
Rudresh N Technicolor
Sylvester A Technicolor

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WINNERS – STUDENT’S CATEGORY
CLAY MODELING
First Prize Ramachari
University College of
Visual Arts, Davangere
INR
15000
Jungle lodges & Resorts
Voucher for 1 night and 2
days for 2 people*
Runner Up Santosh Kumar
Chanarts Visual Art
College, Bidar
INR
10000
-
STORY WRITING
First Prize
Shashank
Uppalike &
Team
National Institute of
Design- Bangalore
INR
20000
days for 2 people*,
Internship @ Videogyan
Studios*
Runner Up
Chirag Bafna &
Team
Jain Animation School -
Bangalore
INR
15000
-
CHARACTER ANIMATION
First Prize
Sai Srikanth
Charepalli
Native Puppets -
Bangalore
INR
20000
INR 55,000/- Native
Puppets Scholarship,
Studios*, Jungle Lodges &
Resorts Voucher for 1
night and 2 days for 2
people*
Runner Up Arjun K Wiztoons - Banagalore
INR
15000
INR 35,000/- Native
Puppets Scholarship
BENGALURU GAFX CONFERENCE 2017 ‘CHAMPIONS’
ARTISTIC COMPETITION

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DIGITAL PAINTING
First Prize
Karthik
Bharadvaj
University Visvesvaraya
College of Engineering -
Bangalore
INR
15000
Job offer/opportunity to
enroll into MPC Academy*,
days for 2 people*, Huion
610 Pro Pen Tablet, Adobe
Creative Cloud 12 months
license
Runner Up - - - -
TRADITIONAL PAINTING
First Prize Shashidhar
MMK College of Visual
Art - Gulbarga
INR
15000
Voucher for 1 night and
2 days for 2 people*
Runner Up Shiva Prasad
MMK College of Visual
Art - Gulbarga
INR
10000
-
3D MODELING
First Prize
Muhammed
Fouz Ul Haque
Arena Animation-
Kannur, Kerala
INR
15000
enroll into MPC
Academy*, Jungle
lodges & Resorts
2 days for 2 people*,
Studios*, Huion 610 Pro
Pen Tablet
Runner Up Hemnath R
Arena Animation -
Rajajinagar, Bangalore.
INR
10000
Arena Animation -
Rajajinagar, Bangalore.
3D GAME ART
First Prize Rohit Lad
Arena Animation -
Jayanagar, Bangalore
INR
20000
Huion 1060 Plus Pen
Tablet, Job
offer/opportunity to
enroll into MPC
Academy*, Jungle
lodges & Resorts

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Runner Up
Huzefa
Sikander
ICAT - Bangalore
INR
15000
enroll into MPC
Academy*, Huion 610
Pro Pen Tablet.
WINNERS – PROFESSIONAL’S CATEGORY
CLAY MODELING
First Prize Vinayak S
Mr. Mandilkar Fine Art
Studios - Mumbai
INR
20000
Voucher for 2 nights and
Runner Up - - - -
STORY WRITING
First Prize Nikhil Chandra
Technicolor India Pvt.
Ltd.
INR
30000
Runner Up - - - -
CHARACTER ANIMATION
First Prize Kannan
Xentrix Studios -
Bangalore
INR
30000
Runner Up Vignesh
Xentrix Studios -
Bangalore
INR
20000
-
DIGITAL PAINTING
First Prize Bala Sutar
Hike Messenger -
Bangalore
INR
20000
Huion 1060 Plus, Jungle
lodges & Resorts
Adobe Creative Cloud 12
months license
Runner Up
Radha
Krishnan R
MPC - Bangalore
INR
15000
Huion 610 Pro Pen
Tablet
TRADITIONAL PAINTING
First Prize
Jaya Ganesh
NS
Power Research &
Development
INR
20000

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Consultants Pvt. Ltd. -
Bangalore
Runner Up Basavaraj S
Vani Fine Art College -
Gulbarga
INR
15000
-
3D MODELING
First Prize Moby Francis MPC - Bangalore
INR
20000
Huion 1060 Pen Tablet,
Runner Up
Fatihima
Raseed
HappyMongo -
Bangalore
INR
15000
Huion 610 Pro Pen
Tablet
3D GAME ART
First Prize Shyamsagar S
Ltd.
INR
30000
Huion 1060 Plus Pen
Tablet, Jungle lodges &
Resorts Voucher for 2
nights and 3 days for 2
people*
Runner Up Ranjilnath
Ltd.
INR
20000
Huion 610 Pro Pen
Tablet

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WINNERS – STUDENT’S CATEGORY (Procedural Generation)
First Prize
Rahul Sinha &
Sumit Gosh
M.S Ramaiah Institute
of Technology -
Bangalore
INR
30000
Employment
opportunity with the
Technology team of
MPC, Bangalore*.
Runner Up
Harshavardhan
Kode
Indian Institute of
Technology - Bombay
INR
15000
Employment
Technology team of
MPC, Bangalore*.
WINNERS – PROFESSIONAL’S CATEGORY (Procedural Generation)
First Prize
Sharatchandra
Aital &
Shaurya
Krayonik Lab -
Bangalore
INR
40000
Employment
Technology team of
MPC, Bangalore*.
Runner Up
Tilak S Naik &
Ahamed
Shoaib
MS Ramaiah Institute
of Technology -
Bangalore
INR
20000
Employment
Technology team of
MPC, Bangalore*.
WINNERS – PROFESSIONAL’S CATEGORY (Simulation X)
First Prize
Ajmal Sohail
Kukkangai
National Instruments -
Bangalore
INR
40000
Employment
Technology team of
MPC, Bangalore*.
Runner Up - - - -
HACKATHON

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Bengaluru GAFX Conference showcased some of the best content films from all across the
world. The focus was to advance and promote the art and science of animation, games and
visual effects and to foster and strive for excellence and knowledge in all matters pertaining
to animation and visual effects, and for the purpose of bringing together those leaders and
innovators in the field who have demonstrated a high standard of artistic and technical
ability.
Here is the list of films screened;
 Ma Vie De Courgette
 Kubo and The Two Strings
 Shelley’s Eye Candy
 SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival 2016
 SIGGRAPH Day Time Select – The winner’s circle: The festival winners 2011 – 2015
 SIGGRAPH Day Time Select – Break It Down
 SIGGRAPH Day Time Select – The Arcade
 SIGGRAPH Day Time Select – Demoscene
 Best of Annecy 2016

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The Jobs and Career Fair track was included in the Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 with an
objective to give an impetus to the animation, VFX, and gaming ecosystem.
It is an ideal platform for studios and recruiters, irrespective of whether they are hiring or
not. It’s a great opportunity to meet and network with professionals and students attending
the event, showcase the work and projects executed, talk about shows in production and in
pipeline – how it is to work at their studios – the key leadership, tools and technologies,
growth and development opportunities.
For professionals and students, it was a great opportunity to network with the recruiters
and studios to understand quality benchmarks and get a great sense of the various projects
/ shows in production across the industry and thus get equipped to make informed career
choices.
The Fair was an excellent opportunity for school and high school students to explore career
options. The students get to meet various academic institutions, colleges, and universities
offering education in the animation, VFX, and gaming field. It was also an excellent
opportunity to get exposed to the Industry by interacting with students and professionals of
the Industry during the various activities at Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 to make an
informed career choice. The Jobs and Career Fair offers the academic institutions a great
platform to engage with the industry, professionals and prospective students looking to
make a career in the animation, VFX, and gaming industry.
VR Zones: This year the exhibition area was taken to a next level by the participation of top
industry leaders like Dhruva Interactive, Nvidia & Makuta Arts - The Sword of Baahubali. Out
of 6,600 sq feet of the total area of the exhibition floor 1/4th
of its space was allocated to VR
experience zone.
JOBS & CAREER FAIR

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The SketchBook is an initiative by one of the volunteer PC Vikram to bring together a motley
crew of artists both from the Animation and Gaming industry as well as from the Fine art/
illustration space along with creative writers with intent to produce inspired original art
within a few hours.
For GAFX 2017, The sketch group had designed 5 drawing sessions to showcase
observational drawings from live models posing in succession with increasing time duration
ranging from 1 minute to 15 minute sketches and Drawing from Imagination over written
verses of Story ideas provided by a writer who had a day's lead start.
Between May 12th -14th 2017 the 9 member group came together at the Hotel Lalit Ashok
and kicked off the very first morning with drawing from imagination to tell a story,
demonstrated observational drawing with fitness expert and an Artists model Tarun Kumar
and also had a professional Indian Classical dancer Aishwarya Ramakrishnan to pose.
The group quickly moved on to a collaborative sessions with the Story writer Lavanya
Lakshminarayanan providing verses and ideas from 9 short stories which she penned in a
days’ time. Professional friends of the group also joined in and expanded the size and
expression of the event which made it very successful and enjoyable for the Event
Attendees and participants.

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The fundamental objective of this event was to get the AVGC community together, enrich,
energize and inspire the community and the focus was not really to make money through
registration. After serious brainstorming sessions with the core team of GAFX 2017 and
industry leaders like Dr, Golam Ashraf, Anand Baid etc. we came to conclusion to keep the
price nominal yet considerable to ensure right kind participation and see to it that attendees
get their value for money.
The attendees at ABAI Fest & Summit 2016 comprised of 70% students and 30%
professional whereas GAFX 2017 recorded a footfall of 4,500 attendees (approx.) i.e. a total
of 13,500 attendees. GAFX gained a massive response from professionals from the AVGC
arena, the ratio between students versus professionals at GAFX 2017 was 60:40.
The pricing of the event registration are as follows:
1. Student Without Workshop ₹300
only Professional With Workshop
₹600 only
1. Student Without Workshop ₹500 only
2. Professional With Workshop ₹1000
only
 Access to Talks & Presentations
 Screenings
 Gala Closing Nights
 Exhibition Area (Jobs & Career Fair,
VR Experience)
 Competition Area
 Access to Masterclasses
 Workshops
 Talks & Presentations
 Screenings
 Gala Closing Nights
 Exhibition Area (Jobs & Career Fair, VR
Experience)
 Competition Area
Artistic & Tech Competitions - Student ₹600
only
which includes all three days’ access to the
event plus food boxes during competition.
Artistic & Tech Competitions - Professional
₹1000 only which includes all three days
access to the event plus food boxes during
competition.
REGISTRATIONS

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This year we gathered registrations through 3 major sources;
 Online Registration: This year we made serious efforts to ease the process of
registrations by partnering with online ticketing agencies (Explara & Cleartrip).
Through online registrations we emphasized on collecting the data from each of our
attendees be it students or professional with most secured and convenient mode of
online/mobile payment.
 Bulk Registration: GAFX team reached out to organisation/studios and institutes,
through their leadership encouraged participation in large. Discount codes were
generated for top studio like Zynga, Xentrix, MPC, Technicolor, Mikros etc. and for
institutes like NID, Arena Animation, MAAC, Srishti School of Design, etc.
 On – Spot Registrations: At the venue – We also kept a provision of on spot
registrations and received great response on walk-ins.

55
Since the event was rechristened to Bengaluru GAFX Conference, therefore a new logo was
designed keeping the elements of the event in mind.
The logo was then launched by the Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka – Mr.
Siddaramaiah along with the IT, BT & Tourism Minister – Mr. Priyank Kharge.
LOGO LAUNCH

56
Focusing on the new theme, a website was customised with a brand-new design in par with
the best global conferences (www.gafx.in) which provided a detailed information about the
event, which was also launched along with the logo by the Honourable Chief Minister of
Karnataka – Mr. Siddaramaiah along with the IT, BT & Tourism Minister – Mr. Priyank
Kharge.

57
There was a full page newspaper ad released on 8th
May 2017 on all leading newspapers
across India which gave the event a great momentum, after which the traffic on the website
shot up enormously and the event inquiry team received calls & emails from different parts
of the country especially from Karnataka, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata.
The inquiry team received approximately 500 calls daily.
NEW PAPER ADVERTISMENT

58
Personal letters from Honourable Minister were sent out to key leaders and consul generals.
It intended to ensure good support in terms of participation of the companies & speakers,
educational institutes from their organization as well as from their respective countries.
The exercise proved very fruitful as most of the leaders encouraged good participation from
their organization and in many cases leaders were personally present at the event. We could
have had better success with this exercise if this was done about 4 to 6 months prior to the
event as 2 months was very short period for the international organizations and educational
institutes to mark an attendance at GAFX 2017.
Mr Jayakumar P Chief Executive Officer
Toonz Animation
India
Mr Rajiv Chilaka CEO
Green Gold
Animation
Mr Vishal Dhupar Managing Director, South Asia NVIDIA
Mr Anil Pant CEO & MD Aptech Ltd
Mr Pete Draper Co-Founder & CEO Makuta VFX
Mr Sanath PC Founder-Director
Firefly Creative
Studios
Mr Jean Philippe Pieuchot Managing Director
Ubisoft
Entertainment
India Pvt Ltd
Mr
Amol
Gurwara Gurwara Studio Director
EA Games India Pvt
Ltd
Mr Manu Nanda Managing Director
Wacom India Pvt
Ltd
Mr Rajiv Nagar Country Head Huion India
Ms Tanvi Kulkarni Chief Executive Officer
DSK Global
Education &
Research Ltd
Mr. Praful Gade Managing Director
Deluxe
Entertainment
Mr Anish Mulani President, COO Prana Studios
Mr. Tapaas Chakravarti CEO
DQ Entertainment
Ltd
Ms Sumedha Saraogi Chief Operational Officer
DQ Entertainment
Ltd
Mr Ketan Mehta Founder Chairman
Maya Digital
Studios
Mr Milind D Shinde CEO
88 Pictures M & E
Pvt Ltd
Mr Madhavan A.K. CEO
Assemblage
Studios
PERSONAL LETTER FROM THE MINISTER

59
Mr Arjun Madhavan
Strategy & New Business
Development
Assemblage
Studios
Mr
JS
Krishnamurt
hy CEO Anibrain
Mr Arun Dutta Country Manager
GSN (A Sony
Company) INSEAD
Mr Abhishek Subramanya Co-founder / CEO Zvky Design Studio
Ms Charuvi Agrawal Director
Charuvi Design
Labs Pvt. Ltd (CDL)
Mr Anish Mehta CEO
Cosmos Maya
Studios
Mr Vikas Kumar CEO Digitoons
Mr Ranga Rao Chief Strategy Officer
Videogyan Studios
Pvt. Ltd.
Mr Sumit Mehra Studio Head (Games) Hike Messenger
Mr Vaibhav Kumaresh Director Vaibhav Studios
Mr Suresh Eriat Owner & Director Studio Eeksaurus
Mr Namit Malhotra CEO Prime Focus World
Mr Merzin Tavaria
Co-Founder, Chief Creative
Officer Prime Focus World
Mr Virendra Patil Chief Creative Officer Xentrix Studios
Mr Nandish Domlur CEO Xentrix Studios
Mr
Kamalakanna
n RC VFX Supervisor Bahubali 2
Mr Cyrus Mistry
VP Production, Technicolor India
Pvt. Ltd. Technicolor
Mr Rajesh Rao Founder, CEO Dhruva Interactive
Mr Shailesh Daxini Leader Games Industy
Mr Tanay Tanyal Co-Founder Moonfrog Labs
Mr Krishna Desai
Network Head, Kids
Entertainment, India at Turner
International
Turner
International India
Pvt. Ltd.
Mr Ashutosh Parekh Director of Programming
Turner
International India
Pvt. Ltd.
Mr Vijay Subramaniam
VP, Content & Communication,
Media Networks
The Walt Disney
Company (I) Pvt.
Ltd.
Sanjay Raheja CEO
Media Fusion
(India) Pvt. Ltd.
Appu Series
Mr Srikanth Potukela Co-CEO Srikanth Potekula
Mr Raja Koduri
Sr. Vice President and Chief
Architect
Radeon
Technologies, AMD

60
Mr Pradeep Nair
Managing Director - India &
SAARC
Autodesk India Pvt.
Ltd.
Mr Ashish Limaye CEO – APAC Happy Finish
Mr Shanmugh Natrajan
Executive Director & VP
(Products)
Adobe Systems
India
Mr Ezequiel Sarser
Regional Sales Manager - India,
East Europe, Middle East and
Africa at The Foundry The Foundry
Mr Clive Downie CMO Unity Technologies
Mr Quentin Staes Polet
Regional Director South APAC at
Unity Technologies Unity Technologies
Mr Sateesh Subramanian VP of Engineering of AR Blippar
Mr Sharad Devarajan Co-Founder, CEO Graphic India
Mr. Siddhartha Jaykar CEO
Labyrinth
Cinematic Solutions
Mr. Chand RK Director of Business Development Digitales Studios
Ms. Deepthi Menon General Manager, Product Leader Zynga
Mr. David Hebel CEO
Digital Juice
Animations Pvt. Ltd
Mr. Madhukar Dev Chief Executive Officer Tata Elxsi Ltd
Mr. Anil Sondur Executive VP Tata Elxsi Ltd
Mr. Pankaj Khandpur Creative Director Yashraj Films
Mr. Vinoth Chandar Founder, CEO & Creative Director ChuChu TV
Ms. Rajshree Aggarwal Senior Vice President
Turtle Motion
Studios
Mr. Ashish Kulkarni Founder
Punnaryug
Artvision Pvt Ltd
Mr. Kailash Jadhav Head Of Production
FutureWorks
Media Ltd
Mr. Sharath Pal Head business Development
FutureWorks
Media Ltd
Mr. Viral Pravin Thakkar Founder and Creative Director Fluiidmask Studios
Mr. Prasad Sutar Co-founder NY VFX waala
Mr. Gautam Gollerkeri Internation Strategy Riot Games
Mr. Amit Chopra CEO
Digital Domain -
Northern America
Ms. Sreemoyee Chatterjee Director KREO Studios
Mr. Ayman Jamal Managing Partner / Producer
Barajoun
Entertainment
Mr. Arif Jilani Producer & Recruiter
Barajoun
Entertainment
Mr. Anand Bhanushali Founder/Director
Motion Philm CGI
Pvt. Ltd
Mr. Arpan Gaglani Director Philm CGI Pvt. Ltd
Mr. Vikram Verma Executive Producer / General Riva Digital

61
Manager
Mr. Sean Mullen Creative Director
Technicolor India
Pvt Ltd
Mr. Nayeem Akhtar
Founder / Visual Effects
Supervisor
Pixelloid Studios
Pvt. Ltd
Mr. Rajesh Potula Founder / Creative Director
Pixelloid Studios
Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Amol Gurwara
Studio Director of Slingshot
Games (Electronic Arts) Electronic Arts (EA)
Mr. Jayant Nadiger
Trade Commisssioner of Flanders,
Wallonia & Brussels Region of
Belgium
Flanders
Investment & Trade
Mr. Cyrus Guzder Consul General
Consulate General
of Ireland
Mr. Irfan Vazirally Hon. Consul
Consulate of the
Kingdom of the
Netherlands
Dr. Balz Strasser Consul General
Consulate General
of Switzerland
Mr.
Bharat
Suresh Joshi Dy. High Commissioner
British Deputy High
Commission
Mr. Michael Siebert Consul General
Consulate General
of Germany
Mr. Ugo Ciarlatani Consul General
Consulate General
of Italy
Mr. Roy Kho Consul General
Consulate General
of Singapore
Mr. Jordan Reeves Consul General
Consulate General
of Canada
Mr. Tim Martin Trade Commissioner
Consulate General
of Australia
Mr.
Juan del
Alcázar
Narváez Consul General
Consulate General
of Spain

62
With digital marketing the focus was to reach out the key target audience (AVGC community
of professionals, students etc.)
• Pre-Conference Marketing
 Dynamic, Mobile Responsive Website Development using CMS Platform with
Increased Interactivity.
 Traffic Analytics.
 Paid Digital Media.
 Email Marketing.
 Organic Social Media.
 Affiliate Partners.
 In Conference Marketing
 Mobile
 Social Media
 Additional digital marketing partners
 Your Story
 Animation Xpress
 Hacker Earth (Platform for Hackers)
DIGITAL MARKETING

63
WEBSITE LAYOUT – www.gafx.in

64
A mobile app was also developed to enhance the conferencing experience for the attendees, to
enable attendee-speaker interaction with Q&A feature, garner feedback and many more interactive
features.
MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT

65
The website received an average of 4150 unique website visitors per month, rising to 1.25
lacs page views in the month of May till the event. The website garnered visitors from 83
different countries.

66
Facebook
GAFX branded page as well as GAFX event page –https://www.facebook.com/gafx.in/
Total Likes: 3, 639
Total Followers: 3,673
• Facebook Custom Audience:
 Uploaded email addresses of target segment using existing databases.
 Targeted those people directly on their web, mobile and social channels.
• Look-Alike Models: Used Facebook proprietary algorithms to extend the audience to
further people who are similar in behaviour, interests, demographics etc. We choose
a custom audience from our own 10,000 odd database with interest in the AVGC
community and we identify the common qualities of the people in it (ex:
demographic information or interests). Then we find people who are similar to (or
"look like") them. We received great response which converted into attendees as
well as participants of GAFX 2017.
• Re-targeted website visitors to ensure high share of mind and brand recall
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CHANNELS

67
Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13277029/
 New GAFX Branded Company Image
 1 Lac + Impressions
 2000+ Clicks and Impressions
 630+ Page Followers
Through linkedin the intention was to narrow down the target audience byt filtering the the
target by location, industry, profile etc. and also by leveraging the content through
sponsored updates.

68
Twitter:
 400+ Tweets with curated conference content including images, gifs, videos and text.
 50,000+ Twitter impressions.
 Gained ~350 relevant followers on the new twitter channel.
• Email Campaign:
 25 email campaigns.
 73,000 emails sent.
 Average 10% open rate.
 10,000 subscribers.
 Email segmentation to maximize open and engagement rates.
 Auto re-send automation to people who did not open the first email.
 Extensive database cleansing exercise for removing duplicates, hard bounces and
unsubscribed.

69
 Branded Channel
 Branded YouTube Channel for GAFX created
 20,000+ views across 4 videos
 Paid Media
 ~15,000 Video Ad Impressions
 1200+ Ad Clicks
AnimationXpress – GAFX 2017 partnered with AnimationXpress.com as it has a huge reach
and serves the target audience we aimed to reach out to for our GAFX 2017.
AnimationXpress helped us sending out mailers to their database & online publicity on their
portal, spreading awareness about the event, sessions and shared interviews of Honourable
IT & BT Minister, Mr. Priyank Kharge as well as the speakers of GAFX 2017.

70
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS DESIGNED AND POSTED ON
ALL SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS OF GAFX 2017

73
Bengaluru GAFX travelled pan India to bring in all the talents to the extravaganza. We had
our volunteers in key cities across India, who despite their day job have helped us spread
word about Bengaluru GAFX conference 2017 in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad
& even across Bengaluru.
Presentations at schools all over India.
Our volunteers visited animation school of respective cities and they had an interactive
session with the students where they gave presentation about - BENGALURU GAFX 2017.
Our motto was to create awareness about our event & the facilities provided here which
would help in widen their horizon from industry level exposure.
Bengaluru
Volunteers – Shiv sundar & Lavanya
Institute Number of students addressed
AIGA 33
Jain Animation School 81
Wiz toonz 54
MAAC 30
Arena Malleshwaram 50
Arena Rajajinagar 52
Arena Banaswadi 49
Arena Jayanagar 122
ICAT 71
OUTREACH PRESENTATIONS

74
Hyderabad
Volunteers - Prathik & Veena
Arena- Dilshukhnagar 63
Arena-Ameerpet 31
Arena AS Rao Nagar 30
Backstage Pass Institute of Gaming
&Technology
34
ICAT 17
Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts
University
33
MAAC - Ameerpet 10
MAAC-DSNR 9
IACG 36
Delhi
Volunteer - Adil Khanna
Arena -Connaught Place 6
Arena -South Extention 35
Reliance AIMS- Noida 42
Arena - Preet Vihar 27
MAAC - Pitampura 18
MAAC - Rajouri 17
Arena -Connaught Place 6
Arena -South Extention 35
Reliance AIMS- Noida 42

75
Mumbai
Volunteers - Khushnuma & Kevin
MAAC - Andheri 84
Arena- Dombivli 15
Area-Ghatkopar 24
Pune
Volunteer – Kevin
DSK Supinfocom International Campus 21

76
We reached out to key leaders at top studios to ensure good participation from
professionals.
Leaders from following organisations whom we personally met/connected with:
• Zynga
• Dhruva
• Technicolor
• MPC
• Xentrix Studios
• Assemblage
• Double Negative
• 88 Pictures
• Arena Animation etc.
We reached out to various colleges & institutes across India like, National Institute of Design
Bangalore & Ahmedabad, IDC Mumbai, Srishti School of Design, Arena Animation and many
more.
Our intention was to invite and showcase the work done by the students at the event - we
offered 2 stalls (3m x 2m each) free of cost for colleges like IDC & NID to showcase their art
work. GAFX 2017 was an excellent opportunity for students & faculty from Animation Film
Making Design and Game Design specializations to attend the various workshops/master
classes.
MEETINGS & CONTACTS WITH KEY BUSINBESS & CREATIVE LEADERS TO INVITE PARTICIPATION
MEETINGS, PHONE CALLS & E-MAILS TO PROFESSORS FROM COLLEGES & INSTITUTES.

77
Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 was extensively promoted on three major radio broadcast
networks covering three languages; Kannada, Hindi & English. This year we curated radio
contests which built a great momentum by engaging audience through simple quiz from the
AVGC sector. The winners of the contest were given the title of GAFX Fans who had the
luxury to attend the event free of cost.
Fever FM 104 FM, Indigo 91.9 FM and Radio City 91.1 FM
Below are the script used for promotion on these radio broadcast stations.
 Generic
Organized by Government of Karnataka & ABAI, India’s largest Conference for
Animation, Games and Visual Effects professionals and students – Bengaluru GAFX
Conference Masterclasses & workshops, talks & presentations, screening of best
animation content from all over the world, live competitions & hackthon, job &
career fair, exhibition area, VR zones and much more
May 12th
-14th
@ Hotel Lalit Ashok
Register @ www.gafx.in
Conference.
RADIO BROADCAST PUBLICITY

78
 Masterclasses & workshops
Master classes and workshops by top global experts in areas such as story,
production design, cinematography, visual effects, character animation, scripting,
unity, math in animation and much more…
May 12th
-14th
@ Hotel Lalit Ashok Register @ www.gafx.in
 Talks & Presentations
Conference
Talks and behind the scenes of Hollywood Blockbusters like Fast & Furious 8, Jungle
Book, Doctor Strange, Finding Dory, The Good Dinosaur, Moana and our very own
Bahubali 2, Shivaay, Pulimurugan and much more…
May 12th
-14th
@ Hotel Lalit Ashok Register @ www.gafx.in
 Live Competitions
Conference.
Asia’s largest and one of it’s kind, over 24 hours duration, live competitions in
Animation, Digital Painting, Modeling, Game Art, Traditional Painting & Sculpting
and Hackathon
Excellent platform to showcase talent, get noticed, win exciting prizes including
interships and job offers
May 12th -14th @ Hotel Lalit Ashok
Register @ www.gafx.in (spell it out as g ….a…f…x.in)
 Engineering & Tech track
Strong in math and science? From Engineering Background? But also have a creative
flair… Are you wondering how to find a job that where you can use your right brain
as well as your left brain to work
Coding is your thing …but you enjoy solving creative problems…want to work in a
dynamic / fun environment.

79
Have a deep passion and interest in Animation, Games and Visual Effects or you are
just curious…
Come attend Bengaluru GAFX Conference and find out more, India’s largest event in
Animation, Games and Visual Effects.
Hotel Lalit Ashok, May 12-14th
, Register at www. G….A….F….X.in
 Hackathon
Love coding challenges, game jams, solving problems under time pressure? Love the
thrill or participating in a hackathon and enjoy the high after completing it over
grueling 24 + hours
How about creating a piece of art using code? Or running simulations to solve real
world problems?
All this in a fun, vibrant, stimulating setting of India’s largest Animation, Games and
Visual Effects Event.
Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017.
Hotel Lalit Ashok. May 12th
-14th
,
Register at www. G….A….F…X.in
 Artistic Competition
Enjoy participating in community art session.
Looking for a platform to showcase your artistic skills & get noticed by some of the
best employers in India or looking to compete to vie for top honors as one of India’s
best artists.
Asia’s only live competition for Professionals & Students in Digital Painting,
Traditional Painting, Clay Sculpting, 3D Modeling, Game Art, Character Animation
and Story Writing & Illustration.
Bengaluru GAFX Conference at Hotel Lalit Ashok, May 12-14th
Register at
www.g...a....f..x.in
 Screenings
Come watch – Oscar nominated & critically acclaimed animation films such as Kubo
& The 2 Stings and My Life as a Zucchini
Screening of festival winners and finest animation shorts films from all over the
world including SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival and much more…

80
Only at Bengaluru GAFX Conference, India’s largest Animation, Games and Visual
Effects Conference
May 12th
to 14th
at Hotel The Lalit Ashok Register www.g...a....f...x.in
 Career Fair
In PUC or College & looking too make a career choice.
Looking to be a part of a vibrant & exciting creative industry. Passionate, Interested
or Curious about Animation, Games & Visual Effects Industry.Come experience it for
yourself and meet various Internationals as well as Indian Universities and
Institutions..
At Bengaluru GAFX Conference, Indias largets conference for animation, games and
visual effects
May 12th
-14th
, Hotel Lalit Ashok. Register at www.gafx.in
 Job Fair Jingle
Are you an artist, technical professional or a student in the animation, games and
visual effects industry? or looking to get into it, looking to explore career prospects
and to networks with the best employers in the industry
Bengaluru GAFX Conference is the place to be. India’s largest event for animation,
games and visual effects
May 12th
-14th
, Hotel Lalit Ashok
Register at www.gafx.in
 VR Jingle
Hearing a lot of Virtual Reality everywhere you go?…..AR / VR et al?
Interested to know what it exactly is and how it is created, want to experience some
cool VR content from all over the world including over very own Bahubali.
Come to Bengaluru GAFX Conference, India’s largest event for animation, games
and vfx.
May 12th
-14th
, Hotel Lalit Ashok
Register at www.gafx.in
Radio Jingles Appended-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2AUIumcpfWNGJWX1d0YXJKUzQ

81
HackerEarth is building the largest hub of programmers to help programmers practice and improve
programming skills. This year we collaborated with HackerEarth to reach out to the programming
community, programmers and hackers to participate and solve problems in the visual graphic world
that was announced just before the competition also with a great presence in social media,
HackerEarth also provided a platform by spreading awareness and promoting the event and
competition.
HACKEREARTH

82
• List of colleges participated at Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017
 Nutan Lalit Kala Mahavidyalaya Raichur
 MMK College of Visual Arts, Gulbarga
 Mr. Vivekanand Kala Mandir, Raibag
 JSS Halbhavi School of Art
 Ravindra Kala Niketan
 Beynon Smith College of Fine Arts
 Vijay Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya, Ilkal, Bagalkot
 University College of Visual Art, Davangere
 Vani School of Art, Chikkanayakanahalli
 Yogeesh Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya, Bidar
 ALVA'S college
 Kalaniketana School Of Art, Mysore
 Vijaya College of Fine Art, Gadag
 Shri Ravivarma Art Institute
 Shantiniketan Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya
 16 Mahalasa School of Art
 Travel, stay with OYO rooms, free registrations to the event and competitions & food
boxes were provided to DAC coordinator and students
 Nature of their participation
 Above 300 participants from 16 DACs across Karnataka
 160 participants were from DAC majorly participating in Traditional Painting and Clay
Sculpting
DACs at Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017

83
• Winners from DAC
There were 5 winners from student’s category & 1 from professional’s category.
Clay Sculpting
Winner - Ramachari - University College of Visual Arts, Davangere
Runner up - Santosh Kumar - Vani Fine Art College, Gulbarga
Winner - Shashidhar - MMK College of Visual Art - Gulbarga
Runner up - Shiva Prasad - MMK College of Visual Art – Gulbarga
Runner up - Basavaraj S - Vani Fine Art College - Gulbarga
• DAC - GoK meeting at Bengaluru GAFX
 Formal intro and meet and greet.
 Opportunity for GoK to assure the fine art colleges GoK Commitment to support the
DAC prog and ensure an early launch of phase II program.
 Seriousness of the deliverables and need for very strong follow through on its
deliverables by the fine art colleges to receive continued support from GoK was
impressed upon.
 Finally, an assurance to integrate the DAC colleges with the main stream industry
eco system starting with inviting them for fully paid GAFX conference.
 Principal of 11 new fine art colleges of DAC Phase II met Mr. Radha Krishna - GM4
KBITS
 Agenda of the meeting was to get the GoK and the authorities of DAC, fine art
colleges under one roof an interactive session. The outcome of the meeting was the
commencement of DAC Phase II from the new educational year (August 2017).

85
GRANT RECEIVED FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA
Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 was primarily supported financially by the GoK. The
projected estimation of the event was INR 2,41,60,000 out of which KBITS sanctioned INR
2,11,60,000 only and have released 75% of the sanctioned amount as of now.
SPONSORSHIP & FUND RAISED
ABAI initiated to arrange the remaining fund in terms of sponsorship, financial support &
booth sales to meet the additional expenses during and post event. (Details mentioned in
the financial attachment)
With the presence of the best and top recruiting companies, educational institutes and for
the first time ever VR Zones, the scale of exhibition at Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 was
much bigger and prominent, compared to the previous year.
Exhibition area this year vs last year
 8 recruiting companies in ABAI Fest & Summit 2016 and 16 in GAFX 2017.
 10 educational institutes in ABAI Fest & Summit 2016 and 9 in GAFX 2017.
 6 exhibitors in ABAI Fest & Summit 2016 and 14 exhibitors in GAFX 2017.
 3 VR zones in GAFX 2017.
Levels of sponsorships offered - appended
SPONSORSHIP

88
Kalinga I
Outside Sidhartha – Exhibition Area
BRANDING AT THE VENUE

91
Grand Ball Room
Installation

92
Panels at Hotel Entrance
Branding at the Car Check

96
Honourable Minister Mr. Priyank Kharge hosted a luncheon for the key leaders of the GAFX
(Games, Animation and Visual Effects) industry and key speakers - an idea proposed by
Principal Secretary Mr. Gaurav Gupta. It was a small group of people; it was 'sit down'
format. We had 5 round tables with 4 to 5 guests per table and the Honourable Minister
moved from table to table and had a course of the meal on each of those tables and thus
welcoming them to Bengaluru GAFX and sharing his plans and thoughts about making
Bengaluru the destination for the GAFX industry. The luncheon was attended by the
following -
Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary IT, BT & E-Commerce
Mr Nagraj, MD KBITS
Mr.Biren Ghose - Technicolor India / ABAI
Mr. Adi Shayan - Honorary Secretary ABAI, Conference Director Bengaluru GAFX
Mr. Cyrus Mistry - VP, Production, Technicolor India
Mr. Nandish Domlur - CEO, Xentrix Studios
Mr. Veerendra Patil - CCO, Xentrix Studios
Ms. Shelley Page - DreamWorks Animation, Aardman Studios
Mr. Srinivas Sribaktha - CEO, Vedatma Animation Studios / Joint Secretary, ABAI
Mr. Ganesh Papanna - Director, Thought Cloud Studios / MC Member, ABAI
Ms. Shruti Verma - Unity
Mr. Alejandro Garcia - Professor, San Jose State University
Mr. Shuzo John Shiota - CEO, Polygon Pictures
Mr. Avneet Kaur - Character Technical Director, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Mr. Dale Mayeda - Head of Effects, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Mr. Arjun Madhavan - Head of Strategy, Assemblage Entertainment
Mr. Mark Elendt - Sr, Mathematician Side FX, SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival
Mr. Seshaprasad - Head of Production, Double Negative
Mr. Ramesh Anumukonda - Evangelist, Unity Technologies
Mr. Prakash Cavale - Founding Member, ABAI
The luncheon was very well received by the industry and the visiting speakers
MINISTER’S LUNCHEON

98
ABAI lined up B2G meetings for Honourable Minister Mr. Priyank Kharge with key industry
leaders that participated in Bengaluru GAFX Conference.
Honourable Minister was present at the venue for 2 days of the 3 day event. He was present
on the 1st and 3rd day i.e. May 12th and 14th. An office was set - up for Honourable
Minister to have his meetings.
Here's the list of people that Honourable Minister met -
Dr. Nandish Domlur, CEO, Xentrix Studios
Mr. Arjun Madhavan, Head of Strategy, Assemblage Entertainment
Mr. Rakesh Mishra, VP Marketing, Ms Anuradha Madhusudan, Director Marketing, Ms
Shalini Natraj, Head of HR, Target India
Mr. Rajesh Rao, CEO, Dhruva Interactive
Mr. Prakash Ramajillu, Conference Strategy Director, Koelnmesse Pte. Ltd / Siggraph Asia
Organizers
Mr, Milind Shinde, CEO 88 Pictures, Mr. Manish Sharma, Animation Director 88 Pictures
Mr. Biren Ghose, Country Head, Technicolor India
Mr. Lafeer Muhamed, Director AIGA
Mr Arun Dutta, Country Manager, GSN Games (Sony Company)
Here's high level points that came up where GoK support was sought.
• Skill development & availability of plug and play talent => The need for Finishing School
was emphasized. The proposal already in the works was commended and the need to
expedite it was made.
• Outstation players were particularly interested in the new policy due for announcement.
They are at the cusp of expansion and were eager to know the benefits and support
especially towards production grants to be able to be competitive to attract work into the
country / state.
B2G MEETING WITH MINISTER

99
• Support for start-ups / Idea to PoC fund details. The players are keen to know the details
of how they can apply and avail this benefit.
• AVGC / Post Production Lab - the need to review the scope and ensure relevance to all
sectors i.e. Games, Animation and VFX. E.g. Mobiles for testing for Mobile Game Start-
Ups.
• International Market Visits / Pavilion at SIGGRAPH Asia 2017, Bangkok.
Honourable Minister proposed to invite some of these leaders for a round table to go over
the policy draft and make any final revisions before sending it forward for cabinet approval.

100
• Professionals:
 Great opportunity to network with industry peers /other studios/ get updated on
what other studios are upto / what opportunities exist –via Job fair.
 Great way to showcase their talent and get recognized.
 Learn and get inspired from talks and presentations from renowned speakers both
from India and abroad.
 Cool things to look for like master classes and workshops designed for professionals
by industry stalwarts.
• Students:
 Learning and nurturing from master classes, workshops, talks and presentations on
some of the specific area of expertise.
 Great exposure & learning - get a sense of the Industry
 First time ever hands on experience by industry global leaders through workshops.
 Opportunity to network with industry professionals, studios, peers from other
colleges and institutes.
 Screenings of some of the best content from across the world.
 Exposure to latest technologies and products, VR experience zone.
 Excellent opportunity to meet and interact with studios and understand the market
trend and also the prospects to get hired.
 Great career opportunity for freshers and for students looking for a right platform.
 Great way to show courage and belief in oneself by participating in live competitions
and rubbing shoulders with the professionals.
 Great way to showcase to the global industry the level of talent / passion /energy
that exists here
 Excellent opportunity to display their talent & temperament, get recognized by
peers, studios and on a global platform.
 Chance to win exciting prizes including cash and some cool hardware and software,
including scholarships for advanced online studies.
• Studios:
 Excellent opportunity to engage with industry peers /other studios and networking.
 Showcase their best works and upcoming projects
 Spot talents at jobs & career fair
 Network with global leaders
BENEFITS OF AVGC SECTOR

101
 Bengaluru GAFX Conference organised as a community oriented event with focus on
skill and knowledge based sessions to enrich, energise and inspire the professionals and
students from both artistic as well as technical background was very successful. The industry
leaders as well as the visiting speaker that represent the cream de la cream of the global
industry have commended the line-up, scale and scope of the event.
 The inclusion of masterclasses & workshops in this year’s edition was mega
successful. These masterclasses aimed at plugging skill gaps in specific areas of subject
matters. The master classes covered a range of topics across the levels of
complexity/expertise, covering fundamentals to highest end of expertise to the latest as
well. Specialised workshops ranging from 6-9 hours duration that involved hands on
execution including areas like science and maths were full house with attendees from all the
country - Gujarat, Pune, Nagpur, Delhi, Mumbai and all southern cities.
 Bengaluru GAFX addressed an important need of the industry I.e. to bring all of its
elements together on a single platform in a dynamic and vibrant setting. Professionals,
students, artists, technicians, academicians, studios, universities (including international),
design and fine art schools, vocational institutes, technology providers, start-up and VR
players participated very enthusiastically during the conference.
 Bengaluru GAFX provided a great platform for studios to find talent and for the
professionals and students to connect/network with leading employers in the country.
 The live competition provided a great platform to the professionals and students to
showcase their talent win exciting prizes and more importantly get spotted by top
employers in the country. Winners of the competitions received spot offers from
leading studios from all over the country.
 The luncheon hosted by the Honourable Minister Mr Priyank Kharge and the B2G
meetings by the Honourable Minister with industry leaders from all over the country was
very successful. It energised and enthused the leaders and has resulted in greater
participation by industry leaders in ecosystem development initiatives.
- skill development, especially the need for plug n play talent came as a high priority need.
The finishing school idea / proposal developed by ABAI received great amount of interest
and support.
 The idea to PoC grant for animation and games has received great response from the
community. However attention would need to be provided to ensure that grant and its
KEY TAKEAWAYS

102
criteria is customised for the AVGC industry, failing which it will not realise the desired
results and its full potential. It is suggested that Industry/ ABAIs partnership should be
ensured right from the get go.
 The technical tracks including the workshops, masterclasses, talks and presentations
was very successful to be able to attract professionals from the IT industry as well as
engineering students that are interested/curious about this sector.
 The biggest feedback received is that the organisers have done a fabulous job with
Bengaluru GAFX 2017. It would be a huge win if the same scope and scale in ensured next
year as well.
 The culture of volunteering that was developed during Bengaluru GAFX was very
successful and inspiring.
 The representatives from SIGGRAPH / SIGGRAPH Asia that attended Bengaluru GAFX
Conference were very impressed with scale, scope and energy of the event. Further
engagement and follow up with them would be very beneficial for a favourable
consideration for bids to host future editions of SIGGRAPH Asia in Bengaluru.
 The Karnataka AVGV success stories provided great recognition to the studios that
have grown indigenously within Karnataka.
 The Kannada Industry panel was a grand success, this will ensure that greater
participation from Kannada industry film makers and technicians in the future, this will help
raise the animation and VFX bar in the Kannada film industry and hopefully the film makers
will depend on local / Karnataka companies to get the work executed.

103
classes and talks from global experts who are the best in the business. We also encouraged
their participation in various live competitions at GAFX 2017.
Bengaluru GAFX 2017's one of the strong pillar was our volunteers, from the outreach
presentation to our closing ceremony they stood by GAFX for its success.
GAFX went pan India this year, which was a great success and it was possible because our
volunteer's dedication. They reached out too many animation schools & institutes in the
main cities of India, which in turn helped us spread a word about our event in person and
also we gained great footfall this year.
This year we had a blend of professional & students as our volunteers, we wanted to give a
chance for the youngsters from our industry. We preferred to get the most dedicated and
energetic bunch of youngsters and we ended up getting one.
Thus, we announced that we are taking in the volunteers for the event during our
Presentations and also we gave a provision to apply for it thru our website.
They were selected on the basis of their Interest, previous experience, what they expect
from GAFX & what GAFX can expect from them and so on. We had a meet up with the
interested volunteers where we had a face to face talk and volunteers were selected.
On the event days, our volunteers were divided into small teams to achieve perfection in
every single aspect.
Each team had a team lead and were allotted to certain area / responsibility to handle.
VOLUNTEERS

104
Responsibilities like:
Speakers hospitality
Food committee
Reception for GAFX
Registration
Media Room
Competition area
Event area
Job and career fair sector and so on
They were a bunch of dedicated and hardworking volunteers, they stayed overnight to
check on our competitors whose competition was 30 hours / 22 hours long.
They were appreciated by our Honourable IT minister Priyank Kharge who stated that the
volunteers were the Backbone of the event.

105
NETWORKING & COCKTAIL DINNER

108
Honourable IT, BT & Tourism Minister, Mr. Priyank
Kharge said that Bengaluru has moved from IT to
emerging technologies. “We need to go beyond IT and
attract more investment that will help our local talent
to get more exposure.”
Bengaluru is a growing hub for gaming, animation and
visual effects. “We aim to leverage this and aid in the
development of the Industry.”
He said with GAFX the idea is to position the state as a centre for animation, games and VFX.
He stated, “We are going through a rapid sustained technological innovation that is
changing the way people access & consume content. Media content creation access &
consumption has gone through extensive changes in the last few decades and has altered
the landscape for the digital industry. Pointing out that the AVGC sector has a great
potential in the future, he said that the state government was trying to push for original IP
content.
He concluded by stating “Original intellectual property content in animation and gaming will
be eligible for a grant of up to INR 50 lakh by the Karnataka Government.”
He also announced that the government had set aside a INR 2.5 crore fund aimed at
developing world-class content in Karnataka for global audience.
Technicolor, Country Head & President – ABAI, Mr. Biren
Ghose initiated the closing ceremony with a speech in which
he puts forth the figures of growth of the creative industry,
which was as per the KPMG report. He extended his thanks to
the Honourable Chief Minister while highlighting the fact that
he was possibly the first minister to tweet his support for the
event.
He further continued on how the state government and ABAI are pushing the agenda for the
betterment of the students in this field with digital art centres, He stated “Everything we do

109
at ABAI is about ecosystem. We at ABAI have pioneered the concept of putting digital art
centres in government colleges 7 of which are already present and numerous are green
light. The vision is to have 100 more of them.
He said “We have been partnering & working with the government and taking people from
traditional age to digital age.”
His comments further pointed to the fact that they would be interested in making more B2B
events happening in the state of Karnataka.
He also mentioned never before India has experienced a world class line up speakers and an
attendance of 4500 per day, and with this GAFX 2017 is surely made a mark and has proved
to be the most prominent animation, games and VFX event in India.
Honorary Secretary ABAI, Conference Director
Bengaluru GAFX - Mr. Adi Shayan – In his speech he
proposed a vote of Thanks to the Honourable Minister
Mr. Priyank Kharge & The Govt. of Karnataka for their
extensive support. He then thanked the whole list of
sponsors, speakers and entire fraternity of GAFX 2017.
Mr. Adi Shayan highlighted how GAFX volunteers were
spread out across the country and how they conducted the outreach program by giving
presentations and talking about the essence of the event to various studios, Institutes and
colleges. He summarized how challenging and how different was Bengaluru GAFX
Conference 2017 from previous year’s ABAI Fest & Summit 2016 and expressed his gratitude
to his ABAI team to make this event possible to such an extravagant level.
Mr. Adi Shayan then announced the winners of the competitions and handed over the
prizes to the winners.

113
Press Release – Appended
Date Publication Links
12 th
May
Daiji world http://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=451626
12th
May
The Hindu
Business line
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/bengaluru-growing-
as-hub-for-animation-gaming-minister/article9695701.ece
12th
May
The New
Indian
Express
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2017/may/13/more-
jobs-in-gaming-animation-sectors-karnataka-minister-1604342.html
12th
May
The Times of
India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/graphic-animation-
enthusiasts-flock-to-event/articleshow/58653180.cms
12th
May
10times https://10times.com/gafx
12th
May
Timeout
Bangalore
https://www.timeout.com/bangalore/events/bengaluru-gafx-conference-
2017-formerly-known-as-abai-fest
12th
May
allevents.in
https://allevents.in/bangalore/bengaluru-gafx-conference-
2017/1940238529528335
12th
May
Animation
Express .com
http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php/events/gafx-2017-
masterclass-kicks-off-with-steve-walkers-videogame-character-designing-
session
13th
May
Your Story https://yourstory.com/2017/05/teenagers-gafx-conference/
13th
May
The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/gafx-meet-to-conclude-
today/article18449521.ece
13th
May
Daiji world http://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=451626
13th
May
New Indian
Express
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2017/may/12/make-
a-mickey-but-careful-with-the-gods-1604173.html
13th
May Yourstory
https://yourstory.com/2017/05/gafx-2017-sharon-calahan-using-light-tell-
stories/

114
13th
May
Business Line
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/bengaluru-growing-
as-hub-for-animation-gaming-minister/article9695701.ece
13th
May
Yourstory
https://yourstory.com/2017/05/karnataka-govt-aims-make-bengaluru-
animation-vfx-services-destination/
13th
May
The Times of
India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/graphic-animation-
enthusiasts-flock-to-event/articleshow/58653180.cms
13th
May
Asian Times
http://www.atimes.com/article/bangalore-new-super-hub-animation-
gaming-fx/
13th
May
Deccan
Herald
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/611195/karnataka-ready-look-job-
loss.html
13th
May
The New
Indian
Express
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2017/may/14/bengal
uru-to-get-animation-gaming-finishing-school-1604634.html
14th
May
The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/gafx-meet-to-conclude-
today/article18449521.ece
14th
May
Yourstory https://yourstory.com/2017/05/teenagers-gafx-conference/
14th
May
Yourstory
https://yourstory.com/2017/05/make-india-make-india-make-world-tips-
tipping-points-animation-industry/
14th
May
Deccan
Herald
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/611434/baahubali-visual-effects-
team-member.html
15th
May
Your Story https://yourstory.com/2017/05/the-jungle-book-visual-effects/
15th
May
Your Story https://yourstory.com/2017/05/karnataka-grant-animation/
15th
May
The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/making-the-impossible-
possible-animation-fest-draws-to-a-close/article18452983.ece

115
PLATINUM SPONSOR: INR 15,00,000
• 5 minutes speaking slot for a CXO level speaker at the Curtain Raiser or Inaugural or
Valedictory event about the industry trends & how the company is contributing to it.
• Invitation to hand over awards at awards ceremony
• 10 invites to all key networking events during ABAI Fest
• 25 invites / full registration passes for ABAI Fest with lunch
• Company logo listing on event website
• Company logo displayed on entrance arch, side panels of all halls, and appropriate
places in the venue
• Company logo listing on attendee lanyard and event handbook
• 1 FM radio mention
• Exhibition stall space: 2 nos (3m x 2m each)
• MC acknowledgements throughout the event
• Standees in earmarked spaces in the venue (standees to be provided : Max 5 Nos)
• Complimentary ABAI corporate membership for 1 year.
GOLD SPONSOR: Rs. 10, 00,000/-
• Invitation to hand over awards at awards ceremony
places in the venue
• 1 FM radio mention
• Exhibition stall space: 2 nos (3m x 2m each)
• Standees in earmarked spaces in the venue (standees to be provided : Max 3)
SILVER SPONSOR: Rs. 5,00,000/-

116
places in the venue
• Exhibition stall space: 3m x 2m
• 2 Standees in earmarked spaces in the venue (standees to be provided )
BRONZE SPONSOR: Rs. 3,00,000/-
places in the venue
• Company logo listing on event handbook
• Exhibition stall space: 3m x 2m each
ASSOCIATE SPONSOR: Rs. 1,00,000/-
places in the venue

117
EXHIBITOR: Rs. 50,000/-
• Company logo will be displayed exhibition directory and applicable publicity
materials.
• 2 invites to all key networking events during ABAI Fest.

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